ASA Enclosure temp

General Discussion
1

Basic Information:

Printer Model: Voronr 2.4
MCU / Printerboard:
klippy.log

…Not so much an issue. Just wandering what is the optimal enclosure temp for printing ASA?
I’m reaching 38 C. with no enclosure fan.

Thanks in advance.

2

No need for an enclosure for ASA, just need to prevent air from flowing at or across the print.

3

Isn’t that basically an “enclosure”?

4

I am saying there is no enclosed temp requirement.

My Ender 5 S1 has no bottom or top panels but the bed at the start is close to the top. I have my printers away from any HVAC vents, no problems with printing ASA or ABS.

I have found warnings to not print ASA on PEI without a release agent since with none it will almost weld to the PEI.

5
6

As ASA is one of my most favorite material, I print quite a lot of it. My experience:

  • Depending on the part’s size and geometry it can warp pretty hard (had instances where it even lifted the magnetic spring steel from its base)
  • Heat bed at 100°C+ helps to reduce warping
  • Enclosed chamber helps to reduce warping
  • Heated chamber helps to reduce warping even further
3 Likes
7

@Sineos
I think they really want to know what chamber temperature range do you use for your ASA printing.

8

I’m not sure that I can a provide a good guidance here.

  • In my printers I can reach max ~50°C whereas my feeling is “the more the better”.
  • It heavily depends on the geometry. Sharp edges and angles are way more prone to warping than soft radii
  • Small part do not need it at all. Parts with over 250 mm X/Y, high Z-height and sharp edges warp even at 50°C chamber temperature.

Having said this, I’d love to have a printer that can go up to 130°C chamber temp to print pure PC or similar fancy materials :innocent:

9

There are printers made of baking ovens that can reach such temps… :smiley:

10

Well, if money doesn’t play a role…
I already made some experiments with PTC heaters to really heat the chamber but this quickly gets out of hand:

  • Standard belts do not take this temperature → You need HT belts
  • Heat creep in the hotend quickly gets an issue → Would need a water cooled hotend
  • Stepper motor on a direct drive (even class H) tend to become an issue → Likely need to work with bowden extruder
  • All printed parts needs to be replaced by aluminum parts
  • Thermal expansion of the frame becomes increasingly difficult to manage

Guess there is a reason that such machines have an ugly price point.

3 Likes
11

Chamber temp at or over 60C will be beneficial for warping…this is for ABS ASA and all but the worst/warpyest filament.

12

Thanks a lot for the reply’s. I will continue with my set up as is.

13

I Print pretty much only ABS and ASA in my V2.4. I use a low power PTC heater (150W) combined with fans under the heated bed to quickly bring the chember up to 50C. Before this I always had problems with warping especially in the V2.4 because the print sits at the bottom of the chamber. The PTC keeps the chamber between 50 and 60C even in winter and I have not had any warping since. It hasn’t caused any problems with heat creep or clogging of the hotend and I have thousands of hours on the machine now with no major part failures.
The temp needed to eliminate warping depends on the shape of the print of course but I have found that I can now just not worry about it and even parts with small contact areas over long lengths stay in shape.
Good chamber sealing and circulaton of air is important to getting good temps without creating hot and cool spots.
Getting good readings from a chamber sensor can be more difficult than it might seem and some thought or experimentation with air flow and placement might be needed.

14

As a general remark:

The chamber temperature should be just below the glass transition temperature of the material if you want to avoid internal stresses / tensions in your parts and achieve the best possible layer adhesion. After printing, the chamber temperature should cool slowly.

For ASA this ideally means around 90°C to 95°C. Quite difficult to achieve. But in any case: Every little bit of temperature helps.

1 Like
15

I print ASA & ABS with my 2.4r2 enclosed in plexiglass with foam seal on all panels and doors and 3 “clips” on each side for a good seal and Nevermore filter/fan. The 300x300 takes about 20 min. to reach 50 C in room temp. The 350x350 almost 1 hour to reach 50 C. Most prints produced without warping. Anything larger than 200mm in any dimension, depending on the thickness and shape could develop a minor warp that can only seen as “smooth” printed area on a textured bed. For example I printed an ABS 200x200mm container with 1.5mm thickness and I noticed a minor warping about 5mm from the corner and at the corner only.
I will agree I higher cabinet temperature will reduce warping etc. During summer where the room temp. is higher, the chamber temperature reaches almost 60 C I notice even less or none warping on the same object printed in 50 C chamber.